Monday, July 12, 2010

A day after hill meet, rift in tribal camp

TT, Siliguri, July 11: A day after a meeting with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha in Kalimpong, the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad continues to differ on the proposed alliance with the hill party.

The leaders of the Dooars-Terai unit of the Parishad, which had held the first “formal” meeting with Bimal Gurung’s outfit at Gorubathan yesterday, said they found nothing wrong in joining hands with the Morcha as long as there was a common interest.

But state leaders, after a meeting today with the regional leadership in Jalpaiguri’s Malbazar, said they had reservations about joining the Morcha movement for a separate state of Gorkha Adivasi Pradesh.

John Barla, the president of the Dooars-Terai unit who had led the tribal delegation to Gorubathan, said: “Both the Adivasis and the Gorkhas inhabit the Dooars and the Terai. Our intention is to stay in peace and carry out a movement to achieve socio-economic development for the area. We have no reservations about sitting across the table with the Morcha.”

State leaders chose to ignore the Gorubathan meet. “Yesterday’s meeting was not formal. Only some regional leaders of our organisation had been to Gorubathan to hear out the Morcha leadership,” said Birsa Tirkey, the state president of the Parishad.

He was silent when told that yesterday’s meeting was held after a communication between the two sides in writing. “They (the Morcha) have not made any commitments to us and we will carry out our movement to attain Sixth Schedule as we have been doing so far,” Tirkey said.

The difference of opinion among the Parishad leaders cropped up after Morcha president Bimal Gurung in an announcement in May re-christened Gorkhaland to Gorkha Adivasi Pradesh to woo the tribals. This was followed by a Morcha letter to Barla with a request to support its statehood movement.

The rift within the Parishad came to the fore today all the more when the state leaders repeatedly evaded questions on the hill meeting. “We do not support the idea of joining the Morcha and have decided to carry out our movement for issues like increase in tea wages, conferring land rights on tea workers and establishments of educational institutions and hospitals in the Dooars,” the state president said.

Barla, however, said the regional unit wanted to form a joint platform with the Morcha to achieve the rights of tea workers. “We will never join hands with Citu and Intuc which have exploited our people over the years.”

TT, Alipurduar, July 11: An oil tanker with 12,000 litres of fuel toppled on NH31C a little after noon today, leaving almost 800 people stranded and cutting off road connectivity between Siliguri and Assam for five hours.

The driver of the Bharat Petroleum tanker on its way to Barobisha on the Assam border said he was trying to avoid colliding with a group of cows that had suddenly come out of the Buxa Tiger Reserve on the national highway. “But I lost control of the vehicle and it skidded on the highway,” said Parimal Barman, who suffered injuries on the head and leg.

The oil spill from the tanker that spread over 30 metres prompted Kalchini police to cordon off the area, 11km from Alipurduar town.

Around 300 heavy vehicles were stranded on both sides of the cordon from 12.30pm till a little after 5.30 in the evening when the road was cleared.

At least 20 buses between Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri, Siliguri and Jaigaon were stuck on the highway as there are no alternative routes in the 10km stretch of the road that passes through the tiger reserve.

Only a few ambulances with patients were allowed to cross the cordoned area. They were pushed by the police and fire personnel. The ambulances had to switch off their engines because of the risk of a spark.

Bandana Sarkar who was on a private bus to Siliguri had to return home after three hours. “I am taking an autorickshaw to Alipurduar,” she said. Only smaller vehicles like the autorickshaws could turn around and go back to the place from where they had come.

Ravi Oraon from Kalchini was on his way to Calcutta with an ailing relative. They had tickets for Kanchankanya Express from Alipurduar Junction at 4.45pm.

When The Telegraph caught up with him, he was already getting ready to walk a kilometre of the cordoned area and then take an auto-rickshaw.

Later, he said over the phone: “We were just in time for the train. We took the right decision by not waiting any more. It was difficult for my relatives, but better than missing the doctor’s appointment.”

Pradeep Sarkar, the officer in charge of the Alipurduar fire station, said: “We could not take the risk of even allowing the smaller vehicles to pass. The oil was leaking and even the smoke coming out of the silencer could ignite the fuel. We had spread foam to cut off air supply to the spilled fuel. Then we got another tanker to drain off the diesel.” Sarkar said petrol was more combustible than the 8,000 litres of diesel kept in two compartments of the tanker.

After a crane put the tanker back on the road a little after 5pm, it was taken to the Nimati petrol pump to drain off the 4,000 litres of petrol.

Sleeping off after Super Sunday- Classes put off or rescheduled for soccer face-off

A roadside vendor tries to sell flags of the Netherlands and Spain to a passing motorist in Johannesburg a few hours before the match on Sunday; (above) A Spanish flag strung up at Pachpanhata in Darjeeling. Pictures by AFP and Suman Tamang

Vivek Chhetri, TT, Darjeeling, July 11: Strategies have been chalked out not just in Soccer City but in the boardrooms of hill educational institutions as well. School principals had racked their brains last week to strike a balance between work and play so that sleepy heads don’t have to trudge to class tomorrow rubbing their eyes after the grand finale ends early in the morning.

Few in the hills are unwilling to miss the face-off between the Netherlands and Spain but with the kick-off at midnight, many may not be able to reach school on time. Classes in many institutions start as early as 7.30am.

So many school authorities have decided to either declare a holiday or postpone the first period tomorrow.

George Fernandez, the principal of Mount Hermon, has decided to keep the school shut.

“All the students will be definitely watching the match and we have decided to declare a holiday. We had a full school on Saturday when we followed Monday’s routine,” said Fernandez.

Most of the residential schools have arranged for television sets that will be placed in the dormitories for the students.

St Joseph’s School (North Point) has not declared a holiday but has decided to change the timing so that students and teachers can catch up on some sleep.

“We start school at 8am but tomorrow we have decided to start an hour late. The school will remain open till 4pm instead of 3pm,” said Father Kinley Tshering, rector, North Point.

It is not just the schools in Darjeeling that have been caught in the World Cup euphoria. Most schools across the hills have also decided to change their timings for the D-Day sake. “We too have decided to start school at 10.30am, instead of the usual 8.30am, because of the match,” said Rabindra Subba, the director of Himali Boarding School in Kurseong.

The build-up to the games in Darjeeling has hit a crescendo despite teams with major followers like Argentina, Brazil, Germany and England having crashed out.

“I have spent almost Rs 5,000 throughout the tournament betting which player will get yellow card or the red card or score the first or the second goal in a match,” said a driver who plies a taxi on the Darjeeling-Lebong route.

The hills, which have more football followers than cricket, have already a planned a party to watch the closing ceremony. “I have sold four rooms to some local people who are planning to watch the match with their friends,” said Vicky Rai of Hotel Crystal Palace in Darjeeling.

District information and cultural officer Pasang Bal said the matches were being telecast on a giant screen at the Gymkhana Club.

“Since the semi-finals were held at midnight, the turnout at the club was thin. But today, I think a lot of keen football fans will come to watch the final at the club,” the officer said.

Aviit Sinha, TT, Siliguri, July 11: The Bombay Natural History Society is inching towards releasing the first set of vultures from the three captive breeding centres of the country, one of which is in Jalpaiguri’s Rajabhatkhaowa.

The BNHS authorities said about 18 fledglings have been bred at the centres till now, including two in Rajabhatkhaowa.

The two other centres where vultures are bred are at Pinjore in Haryana and in Assam.

The conservation and captive-breeding programme was taken up by the BNHS along with the state forest departments after many of the birds died in south Asia in the late 1990s. Researchers had confirmed that one of the major causes of the death was the presence of a drug, diclofenac, in the carcass of cattle that the birds fed on.

The project that began at the three centres in 2007 is being funded by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, UK, and the Darwin Initiative for the Survival of Species, also based in UK.

“In 2009-10 we could artificially incubate eggs in Pinjore,” said Vibhu Prakash, the head of the BNHS project.

The units have three species of vultures — slender-billed, white-backed and long-billed.

Sachin Ranade, the manager of the centre in Rajabhatkhaowa, said: “We plan to release 50 vultures in the wild in the first phase. We have fixed a target of releasing 100 pairs of each species later on.”

“These birds have been either bred in captivity or through artificial incubation. Currently, there are 81 vultures in Rajabhatkhaowa, while in Pinjore there are 136 birds,” said Atul Sathe, public relations officer of the society.

He said, during 2009-10, three eggs of the long-billed vultures were artificially incubated at Pinjore. “It took 57 days to incubate. An injured bird rescued from Ahmedabad had laid an egg after few days it was brought to the centre. The egg was successfully hatched after 55 days,” he added.

He said the experts were now planning to adopt the double clutch process at Pinjore to increase the productivity of the birds. “The process involves artificially incubating the first egg laid by a bird. Vultures usually lay eggs again after three-four weeks. The second egg will be incubated by the birds. This way, two nestlings can be produced by a pair of vultures annually.”

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